The Bid to Lose Weight: Impact of Social Media on Weight Perceptions, Weight Control and Diabetes

Das, Leah; Mohan, Ranjini; Makaya, Tafadzwa

doi:10.2174/1573399810666141010112542

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Research demonstrates that social comparison, which refers to the act of comparing oneself with others to self-evaluate, is common among young people living with type 1 diabetes (Hagger et al, 2016(Hagger et al, , 2023. This also impacts selfesteem, mood, and result in less healthy self-care behaviour, including disordered eating (Das et al, 2014;De Paoli & Rogers, 2018;Trojanowski et al, 2023).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of social media on psychological wellbeing from the perspectives of young people with Type 1 diabetes and their caregivers: a qualitative study

Berry¹,

Cleal²,

Morrissey³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Social media is an important source of social connection and information acquisition for young people with Type 1 diabetes. This study explores young people with Type 1 diabetes’ online experiences and the impact it has on mental wellbeing. Young people (N=19) with Type 1 diabetes and professional/family caregivers (N=8) took part in online mini-focus groups or an online interview. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. All participants reflected on social media’s capacity to facilitate accessible peer learning and emotional support. However, remaining themes for young people with Type 1 diabetes focused on the emotional resonance of diabetes content, which includes the emotional demand of perceiving new products and diets, witnessing diabetes stigma online, and perceiving ‘filtered’ peer profiles. Meanwhile, professional and family caregiver themes focused on the accuracy and trustworthiness of diabetes content. Authenticity was perceived differently between the two participant cohorts. While caregivers perceive that young people often find it difficult to be open about their condition online, young people with Type 1 diabetes value the autonomy that social media provides to choose how and what they engage with online. This study is reflective of the paradoxical nature of social media as a tool which can nourish or challenge psychological wellbeing in young people with Type 1 diabetes. Young people are aware of the nature of the content they perceive, but the task of navigating through less helpful content is emotionally demanding. Co-designing tools to address this emotional burden is discussed in reflection of the findings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of social media on psychological wellbeing from the perspectives of young people with Type 1 diabetes and their caregivers: a qualitative study

Berry¹,

Cleal²,

Morrissey³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Improve adherence and effectiveness of weight management interventions by increasing communication and social support, especially for those that lack in-person support systems (79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84).…”

Section: Negative Positivementioning

confidence: 99%

Weight Stigma and Social Media: Evidence and Public Health Solutions

et al. 2021

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Weight stigma is a pressing issue that affects individuals across the weight distribution. The role of social media in both alleviating and exacerbating weight bias has received growing attention. On one hand, biased algorithms on social media platforms may filter out posts from individuals in stigmatized groups and concentrate exposure to content that perpetuates problematic norms about weight. Individuals may also be more likely to engage in attacks due to increased anonymity and lack of substantive consequences online. The critical influence of social media in shaping beliefs may also lead to the internalization of weight stigma. However, social media could also be used as a positive agent of change. Movements such as Body Positivity, the Fatosphere, and Health at Every Size have helped counter negative stereotypes and provide more inclusive spaces. To support these efforts, governments should continue to explore legislative solutions to enact anti-weight discrimination policies, and platforms should invest in diverse content moderation teams with dedicated weight bias training while interrogating bias in existing algorithms. Public health practitioners and clinicians should leverage social media as a tool in weight management interventions and increase awareness of stigmatizing online content among their patients. Finally, researchers must explore how experiences of stigma differ across in-person and virtual settings and critically evaluate existing research methodologies and terminology. Addressing weight stigma on social media will take a concerted effort across an expansive set of stakeholders, but the benefits to population health are consequential and well-worth our collective attention.

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“…However, not all social media use is positive, especially when it comes to promoting health behaviors such as safe and effective weight loss. For example, content that stigmatizes weight gain or triggers eating disorders is present on social media [ 16 , 18 ]. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that image-centric social media platforms have a greater impact on body image dissatisfaction and eating disorder behaviors than non–image-centric social media platforms [ 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loss of Weight Gained During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis of YouTube Videos

et al. 2022

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Background Many people experienced unintended weight gain during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been discussed widely on social media. Objective This study aims to describe the content of weight loss videos on YouTube (Google LLC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods By using the keywords weight loss during quarantine, the 100 most viewed English-language videos were identified and coded for content related to losing weight gained during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results In total, 9 videos were excluded due to having non-English content or posting data before the COVID-19 pandemic. The 91 videos included in the study sample acquired 407,326 views at the time of study and were roughly 14 minutes long. A total of 48% (44/91) of the sample videos included graphic comparisons to illustrate weight change. Videos that included a graphic comparison were more likely to have content related to trigger warnings (χ21=6.05; P=.01), weight loss (χ21=13.39; P<.001), negative feelings during quarantine (χ21=4.75; P=.03), instructions for losing weight (χ21=9.17; P=.002), self-love (χ21=6.01; P=.01), body shaming (χ21=4.36; P=.04), and special dietary practices (χ21=11.10; P<.001) but were less likely to include food recipes (χ21=5.05; P=.03). Our regression analysis results suggested that mentioning quarantine (P=.05), fat-gaining food (P=.04), self-care and self-love (P=.05), and body shaming (P=.008) and having presenters from both sexes (P<.001) are significant predictors for a higher number of views. Our adjusted regression model suggested that videos with content about routine change have significantly lower view counts (P=.03) than those of videos without such content. Conclusions The findings of this study indicate the ways in which YouTube is being used to showcase COVID-19–related weight loss in a pre-post fashion. The use of graphic comparisons garnered a great deal of attention. Additional studies are needed to understand the role of graphic comparisons in social media posts. Further studies that focus on people’s attitudes and behaviors toward weight change during the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications of social media on these attitudes and behaviors are warranted.

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The Bid to Lose Weight: Impact of Social Media on Weight Perceptions, Weight Control and Diabetes

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

The role of social media on psychological wellbeing from the perspectives of young people with Type 1 diabetes and their caregivers: a qualitative study

The role of social media on psychological wellbeing from the perspectives of young people with Type 1 diabetes and their caregivers: a qualitative study

Weight Stigma and Social Media: Evidence and Public Health Solutions

Loss of Weight Gained During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Content Analysis of YouTube Videos

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